ustxtxb_obs_1958_04_18_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

A Meeting to Talk About the Texas Future AUSTIN The University of Texas this yearall yearis celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding. Last week, as part of that observance, the university sponsored a Conference on Texas : a searching of the state’s human, cultural and material resources. Speakers included: Watrous H. Iron, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank; M. King Hubbert, chief geologist for Shell Development Co.; W. W. Lynch, president of Texas Power and Light; Hines Baker, vice-president of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey; John Rosenfield, art and amusement critic of the Dallas News; Jerry Bywaters, director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; and James P. Hart, attorney, former Supreme Court Justice, former UT chancellor and former candidate Panel discussants included Paul Kayser, president of El Paso Natutal Gas; Harry P. Burleigh, area engineer for the bureau of reclamation; Carl L. Estes, publisher of the Longview News \(who arose at one point to announce he preferred Ralph Yarborough to Price Daniel for Govtor of the Port of New Orleans; R. D. Lewis, director of the agricultural experiment station at College Station; Fred Schmidt, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO; George Fuerman, columnist for the Houston Post; Savoie Lottinville, director of the University of Oklahoma Press; Allen Maxwell, editor of the Southwest Review; Lon Tinkle, book editor of the Dallas News; and Walter P. Webb, professor of history at UT. Major speeches were made by Baker, and Hubbert. Following are excerpt from the speeches of the last three. Lynch: Industry “In order to appraise the future possibilities of industrial development in Texas, perhaps we should first take a quick look at what has been going on during the immediate past. … Texas’ in BOW WILLIAMS it A utomobile and General Insurance Budget Payment Plan Strong Stock Companies 024 LAMAR, AUSTIN GReenwood 2-0545 Let’s Abolish the Poll Tax! MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada Suite 201 Century Building 2120 Travis, Houston 2, Texas CA 4-0686 ID 3-1210 Member of the Piano Technicians Guild, Inc. Douglas R. Strong PIANO TECHNICIAN Tuning, Repairing, Rebuilding JAckson 3-1276 808 Harold, Houston 6, Texas dustrial capacity during those 15 creased to a level four times that attained during all of the years of history prior to 1939. “Today, we find Texas making rapid strides in its progress from what has long been known as an economy sustained by agriculture and exportation of natural resources toward a balanced economy sustained by manufacturing, agriculture and more effective utilization of natural resources. … “No other comparable area in the world is known as yet to have the volume or diversity of raw materials that Texas possesses. We have nearly half of the nation’s underground reserves of oil and gas. Iron, sulphur, salt, cement materials, clays, gypsum, stone of a wide variety, oystEr shell, glass sand, and lignite are available in quantity. Then there are some 50 other minerals of less known importance, some of which may develop into wide commercial potentiality. Our East Texas forests, now increasing in productiveness, yield not only materials for the older forms of wood products, including paper, but also a potential supply of cellulose and lignin which can serve as raw materials for a vigorously growing chemical industry. We produce large quantities of hides, wool and mohair. The warm, highly mineralized waters along our Gulf coast are adapted to manufacturing processes for the production of magnesium, bromine and other minerals. “For many years ahead, we can depend on fossil fuels for electric power production; and thereafter, nuclear fission will be followed by thermo-nuclear fusion which will utilize the hydrogen in sea water for almost unlimited power production…. “How does this add up to produce the total industrial potential of Texas? … In 191g. the Texas value added \(by manufac$108 billion for the nation as a whole, or a little less than 3%. The projection to 1975 places Texas value at 8.6 billion out of 225 billion dollars for the U. S., or a little less than 4% … by the end of the century, Texas will have a value added by manufacture of 31 billion dollars out of an estimated $563 billion for the U. S., or a little less than six percent. “… 0 the rate of growth I have discussed is predicated on the assweeps over us during these destructive inflation or depression wrecks our economy or our society. In facing the future we need to keep a pertinent fact in mind. The time has come when much industry falls into the hands of those who reach for it. In the future many industries will come to Texas because of the natural environment or its natural resources. There will be some industry that has no place in Texas. On the other hand a great deal of industrial development will be open to the competition of those who want it and make long-range plans to induce it to their area. Shakespeare once said “Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” I believe something like this may be true of communities seeking industrial development. Texas was born to little industry. Because of its great natural resources, Texas has had a good deal of industry thrust upon it. It has achieved some industry. Years ahead Texas will realize its full industrial potential, and it is my belief that it will. be largely by the road of achievement. Hubbert: Minerals Hence, in order to make an appraisal of the State’s mineral resources appropriate for the purposes of the present conference, it will suffice if we examine critically its two most important mineral resources, namely, petroleum and natural gas, and ground water, while paying only cursory attention to all the rest. “The production of crude oil in Texas began near Corsicana shortly before the year 1900, but did not reach a significant magnitude until the spectacular discovery of Spindletop near Beaumont by Captain Anthony Lucas in. the year 1901. Since this initial major discovery, the rate of production of crude oil … has progressed steadily with only an occasional setback until it has reached the present rate of approximately 1.1 billion barrels per year, as compared with about 2.7 billion barrels per year for the whole ,United States. “The production of marketed natural gas has similarly increased … to a present rate of 5.2 trillion cubic feet per yea”, which is approximately 50 percent of the total production of the United States. “A third category of petroleum products is that of natural-gas liquids and liquid petroleum gases whose current rate of production is about 165 million barrels per year. … “The significant question for present purposes is that of the future of the production of oil and gas in Texas.” Hubbert said proved crude oil reserves in Texas at the end of 1957 amounted to 14.5 billion barrels and that it is estimated that there are proved gas reserves of 350 trillion cubic feet. Baker: People “When The University of Texas opened its doors in 1883, the state it served was quite different from what it is today.” There were only a million and a half people in Texas then, and 90 per cent of them lived on the land. The development of human resources was closely geared to pushing back the geographical frontier. … The agrarian character of our economy at the time is illustrated by a few figures The net value of all mineral products of Texas then amounted to only about a million dollars a year. And the annual added values from all manufacturing were on the order of $8 million. In contrast, the net value of cotton and the principal livestock on hand was about $160 millionone hundred and sixty times the value of minerals produced, and twenty times the values added by manufacturing. “Today there are more than 9 million people in Texas; and significantly, 70 per cent of the population is urban against the 90 per cent that was rural in 1883. The net value of all livestock and farm products on hand in 1954, according to census figures, was slightly more than $2 billion, as against the $3.6 billion value of the year’s oil and gas production plus the value added through manufacture of petroleum products, and as compared with the $3.5 billion added value from total manufacturing. So in 1954, the value of all livestock and farm products on hand was only roughly 60 per cent of that derived from that year’s production and refining of oil and gas alone, without taking into account other minerals, and a like per cent of the added values from all manufacturing. The economy of Texas has vastly changed. “Per capita income has risen sharply; the level of education is higher; and the state now is a leader in technology. Improved transportation and communication have shortened the 700 miles that separate El Paso from Texarkana and Brownsville from Dalhart, so that today these cities are in a real sense nearby neighbors. “The most important change brought about by these different conditions, it seems to me, is the new character of the frontier which the people of Texas must conquer. Our state, like the rest of the country, has rolled back the geographical frontiers which were once so important; now we face a frontier of ideas which is even more challenging. We live today in a nuclear age, whose rapid developments create new problems and stimulate new human wants; at the same time they present a challenge to solve the problems, and offer the promise of satisfying the wants. That promise will be fulfilled only if we are capable of inventing and using new processes and techniques in all areas of our material life.” “Making sure that our human resources are adequate to the material, social, and cultural tasks involved in these contemporary challenges requires a rising level in the quality of our population. The calibre of the individual citizen is the factor that must count. Developing this quality of individuals, which will in turn improve the quality of our whole society, requires activity in two zation. t . . Each segment will have to do its part. Industry, for example, has the opportunity and the obliLEGALS Thence easterly with the South line of said alley Seventy-five the North line of New York Avenue. Thence Westerly Seventyof New York Avenue to the place of beginning, together will all improvements thereon situated. SECOND TRACT All that certain lot, tract or parcel of land lying and being situated in the County of Travis, State of Texas, known and described as follows: Part of Block “B” of the government Outlots of the City of Austin, according to the plat of a subdivision of said Outlot Fifty1, page 3 of the Plat Records of Travis County, Texas. Such part being enclosed by the following metes and bounds: Beginning at the Northwest corner of said erly with its north line One hunner; Thence Southerly One hunpoint on the South line of Lots feet to the Southwest corner of Thence Northerly with the West place of beginning together with all improvements thereon situated, Which said property is delinquent to Plaintiff for taxes in the following amounts: $1,092.45, exclusive of interest, penalties and costs, and there is included in this suit in addition to the taxes all said interest, penalties and costs thereon, allowed by law up to and including the day of judgment herein. You are hereby notified that suit has been brought by the City of Austin as Plaintiff, against the above named persons, and the State of Texas and the County of Travis and the Austin Independent School District, as Defendants, by petition filed on the 13th day of February, 1958, in a certain suit styled City of Austin vs. Gibb Jett, et al for collection of the taxes on said property and that suit is now pending in the District Court of Travis County 53RD Judicial District, and the file number of said suit is 109,387, THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 April 18, 1958 gation to make training available for its employees beyond the years of school attendanceonthe-job improvement which is of increasing importance in our technical economy. The field here is a broad one, ranging from fundamental instruction in the use of tools to university courses in advanced techniques. The state, the armed services, our religious institutions, organized labor, and farm groups have correspondingly important obligations where training is concerned.” … “In the area of better utilization, there is the same widespread opportunity and obligation. Industry, for example, should continue to advance technology and